Robert Lipsyte

Welcome to my Home Page. Hope you are enjoying summer. I'm on my bike and you should be, too! Please feel free to e-mail any suggestions of what you would like to see on my website. I take editing well.

This has been a sad time. Susan B. Jordan, the well-known human rights lawyer and the older sister of my wife, Lois, was killed on May 29 in the crash of a small plane in Utah. Flying was her passion, although a friend was at the controls of his experimental plane. She leaves a big hole in our family and a legacy in the world. In one of her most famous cases, the defense of Inez Garcia, she established the right of a wife to kill in self-defense a dangerously abusive husband. Last November, Susan took me up in her own plane. Her joy and my pleasure in the flight is a vivid memory, a gift. Besides Lois and me, Susan left her husband, Ronnie Wong; her daughter, Jenny, and her brother Gene and his wife, Layton, and their daughters Rachel, Mara, Johanna and Sasha. It's still hard to believe Susan's gone. We keep waiting for her to land again.

But books go on. Read "Along the Roaring River: From Mao to the Met" by Hao Jiang Tian with Lois B. Morris. Published last year by Wiley, it got starred reviews from Kirkus and the Library Journal. It's a thrilling tale of a wild Beijing kid who lives through the Cultural Revolution and somehow becomes the first Chinese man to make it big on the world opera stage. Lois and Tian are working on a one-man show to debut in Denver at the end of the year.

My own latest YA novel, "Yellow Flag," came out in September, 2007. It's about a famous stock car racing family and the grandson who has been picked to carry on the tradition. He's not sure he wants to be in the hot seat.

"Yellow Flag" is dedicated to my former editor at HarperCollins, Ruth Katcher, who also edited "Raiders Night," which came out in paperback in July, 2007. "Raiders Night" is my toughest novel so far, about the aftermath of a hazing incident at a high school football training camp. Sort of a Friday Night Darks. The central character in the book and star of the team, Matt Rydek, has it all - an abusive father, a vengeful ex-girlfriend, a drug habit and a moral dilemma: Should he risk his college ride by telling the truth about that brutal Raiders night?

Apparently many athletic directors and principals were afraid the book would affect their hopes of turning high school sports into a pay-off; they disinvited me after their librarians and English teachers booked me for school appearances. I wrote about this for ESPN.COM and you can read it in the JOCK CULTURE section where I drop sports pieces. Also in there is a USA Today piece I wrote on the Masters Golf tournament, my least favorite sporting event.

Next up is "Center Field" a YA novel about a high school centerfielder whose position may be taken by an illegal immigrant. What's he going to do about it? Jordan Brown, a former high school ballplayer is my new editor. He's got game.

I'll be using THE LIPSITE page for other articles you might enjoy and whatever is currently on my mind. Right now, there's a piece I wrote several years ago for The New York Times on being a YA writer and one on the media and steroids that appeared in TOMDISPATCH. COM, a wonderful political website to which I sometimes contribute.

While you are in a reading mood, pick up my son Sam Lipsyte's latest novel, "Home Land," (to prepare you for his forthcoming "The Ask") and my daughter-in-law Ceridwen Morris' "From the Hips: A comprehensive, open-minded, uncensored, totally honest guide to pregnancy, birth and becoming a parent." Ceridwen's co-author is Rebecca Odes.

A new project for me is hosting LIFE(Part 2), a weekly half-hour PBS show that will begin airing in September. The show looks at the physical, mental and emotional issues of the boomer generation as it ages. The show is produced out of Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) which means trips to St. Paul, Minnesota, a warm city even in winter. I'll keep you up to date on the show in the LIFE(Part2) section.

But that doesn't mean I've stopped writing. I'm also working on my memoirs "Lessons from the Locker-Room: The Education of an Accidental Sporstwriter." HarperCollins/Ecco will be publishing it. Dave Hirshey and Dan Halpern are the Head Coaches.

But I've still got time to answer your e-mails. So don't forget to drop me a line.